Government officials should use the success of the competition as an educational moment.

There's no better sign of success than an escalation in attacks by your enemies. Based on such evidence, homeschooling is enjoying a boom, as growing numbers of families with diverse backgrounds, philosophies, and approaches abandon government-controlled schools in favor of taking responsibility for their own children's education. As they do so, they're coming under assault from officials panicking over the number of people slipping from their grasp.

There's little doubt that homeschooling is an increasingly popular option. "From 1999 to 2012, the percentage of students who were homeschooled doubled, from an estimated 1.7 percent to 3.4 percent," reports the National Center for Education Statistics. While the government agency suggests that growth has leveled off since then, other researchers say data is hard to come by, since many states simply don't count people who homeschool.

"While the overall school-age population in the United States grew by about 2.0 percent from spring 2012 to spring 2016, data from 16 states from all four major regions of the nation showed that homeschooling grew by an average of about 25 percent in those states," counters the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), in response to NCES figures. "If the data from these states are representative of what happened in the other states during those four years, then homeschooling is continuing to grow in both absolute numbers and as a portion of the overall school-age population."

Just shy of eight percent of North Carolina students are homeschooled for example, in a state in which traditional public schools are bleeding students year after year to charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling.

Unsurprisingly, as the numbers of homeschooled kids grow, their ranks expand beyond the niche populations—religious families, in particular—that originally rejected public schools. Only 16 percent of survey respondents now say they started homeschooling to provide religious instruction, says the NCES, while 34 percent report "concern about the school environment, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure," and others cited "dissatisfaction with academic instruction."

"Today's homeschool advocates aren't the Christian Right, trying to dismantle public education. Rather, they're parents who don't believe that the current school model is best, or enough, for their children," reports the Pacific Standard.

"Today's homeschoolers are more demographically, geographically, and ideologically diverse," agrees the City Journal.

From the responses to NCES's survey, families take on educational responsibilities for their children for a variety of reasons, including safety, educational approach and achievement, and philosophy. All are good reasons for stepping away from a one-size-fits-some government institution.

Let's look at traditional measures of academic achievement.

In 2014, SAT "test scores of college-bound homeschool students were higher than the national average of all college-bound seniors that same year," according to NHERI.

"Mean ACT Composite scores for homeschooled students were consistently higher than those for public school students" from 2001 through 2014, according (PDF) to that testing organization, although private school students scored higher still.

But what about the impact of DIY education on the larger world—say, the development of "parallel societies" that Germany cites as grounds for banning the practice? We should be so lucky—homeschoolers seem inclined to create better societies.

"Students with greater exposure to homeschooling tend to be more politically tolerant—a finding contrary to the claims of many political theorists," reports research published in the Journal of School Choice. Defined as "the willingness to extend civil liberties to people who hold views with which one disagrees," this finding of greater political tolerance among the homeschooled has important ramifications in this factionalized and illiberal era.

"In other words," writes author Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas's Department of Education Reform, "members of the very group for which public schooling is believed to be most essential for inculcating political tolerance (i.e., those who are more strongly committed to a particular worldview and value system) actually exhibit at least as much or more tolerance when they are exposed to less public schooling."

All of that is very promising if you're a parent trying to do the best by your kids. But government officials see threat where parents and children find promise.

In states including Iowa, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Virginia, lawmakers and opponents of DIY education are calling for tighter restrictions and more-intrusive regulation of homeschooling families by government. In each instance, officials point to instances of abuse by adults who fail to educate the children under they charge or who, more horrifically, claim to be "homeschooling" children they're actually subjecting to abuse. The crimes are real, but isolated.

Iowa Rep. Art Staed (D-Cedar Rapids) calls out the starvation deaths of Natalie Finn and Sabrina Ray on his way to arguing for his bill that "requires the parent or guardian to submit a report annually to the school district of residence. Children will also receive visits by the school district." But these incidents, with their specific names, draw headlines precisely because they're so rare and noteworthy.

By contrast, the institutions that Rep. Staed and his colleagues want to set over parents are awash in victims whose names are lost in the overwhelming numbers.

"In 2016, students ages 12-18 experienced 749,400 victimizations (theft and nonfatal violent victimization) at school and 601,300 victimizations away from school," notes the Bureau of Justice Statistics in its latest report. "The total victimization rates were 29 victimizations per 1,000 students at school and 24 per 1,000 students away from school."

"Nearly 9.6 percent of students are targets of educator sexual misconduct sometime during their school career," cautions a 2004 report prepared for the U.S. Department of Education.

"A yearlong investigation by The Associated Press uncovered roughly 17,000 official reports of sex assaults by students over a four-year period, from fall 2011 to spring 2015," we learned in 2017. "Ranging from rape and sodomy to forced oral sex and fondling, the sexual violence that AP tracked often was mischaracterized as bullying, hazing or consensual behavior."

So government-run schools are academically inferior to homeschooling, riddled with crime and abuse, and producing graduates less tolerant than their counterparts who were educated at home. But rather than fix their pet institutions, politicians prefer to grab for power over people fleeing from their grasp.

Ummm… no. Not that homeschoolers have the time or inclination, but they have more standing to claim the right to oversee the floundering public schools. Instead of seeking to crush the competition, public officials should learn from it.

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Hah. Even according to the article you cited, Adam Lanza was pulled from the public school because it was unable to cope with his particular flavor of crazy. Nothing in that article supports your statement. … and my god rest your soul.

Get your facts straight. Dinosaurs and people coexisted peacefully and rode together on Noah’s ark. An alternate hypothesis is Satan put the bones in the flood mud to test our faith in whatever. I know this is true because that is what my homeschooled grandkids are being taught.

An alternate hypothesis is Satan put the bones in the flood mud to test our faith in whatever.

Two or three students would base their front-of-class presentations on that theory every year . . . decades ago. Usually they would pass out small, silly ‘are YOU saved?’ tracts at the end of the presentation. The teacher would remind the class to ‘be respectful of everyone’s beliefs, because those beliefs are important to them, even if you disagree’ as the little booklets were ripped into pieces or tossed onto the floor.

“And it’ll all be paid for by taking stuff from fat-cat millionaires and billionaires!”

Venezuelans thought that was a good idea until they found out fat-cats can move. Now they’re desperately trying to find another source of ‘other people’s money’, so bad, the thug-in-chief there lopped 5 zeros off the face value of their ‘money’ in the hopes people won’t die of laughing instead of starvation. Hey, asshole rev! Take your bullshit to Venezuela! They need another asshole to laugh at!

The one I find the most ludicrous is that it’s possible to know exactly how long ago dinosaurs lived–because the whole theory of carbon dating was based on a preconceived notion of how long it should have taken for species to die out, and carbon dating doesn’t work on anything the age of which we think it’s possible to know.

Why is there so much resistance to the really scientific explanation of life on Earth before human history: “We don’t really know. The scientific method may support some guesses about the origins of life, but it’s not adequate for testing and proving any of them.”

Carbon dating is not used to know how long ago dinosaurs lived because the oldest dates that can be reliably measured by this process date to around 50,000 years ago. There is many other dating methods (absolute or relative).

“Why is there so much resistance to the really scientific explanation of life on Earth before human history: “We don’t really know. The scientific method may support some guesses about the origins of life, but it’s not adequate for testing and proving any of them.” There is guess about the origin of life, but the evolution theory and the estimation of the age of earth are quite solid science.

But Tony knows lots of homeschooled kids, and *they* all believed that Jesus had a pet dinosaur. (Little known fact here: Tony was homeschooled himself, and he thinks that his poor social and logical skills are the result of his inadquate education.)

So you believe that private education of any form turns a person in a religious fundamentalist? The bigger question is why do you care? What’s the big deal if someone you’ll never meet and who will never effect your life doesn’t believe what you believe?

I wouldn’t count on Tony to attempt a reasonable response. He just farts out lazy, moronic prejudices. He’s actually pretty harmless; a useful idiot for his blue masters but not generally a screaming wall of hot takes and hate like so many other internet denizens.

The last forty years have demonstrated pretty conclusively that what is wrong with the Public School system is not lack of money.

A good deal of what is wrong stems from the demonstrable fact that too many graduates of colleges of education are mouth breathing drones, and since they belong to powerful public employee unions they are hard to fire even if caught sexually exploiting a student, much less for simple incompetence.

Tony; the plain facts are that the Public School System is broken, and has been for a long time. The Homeschool kids you complain of are at least likely to be literate (if only so they can read the Bible) and numerate. The spawn of the Public Schools aren’t. That means that, should they ever want to look into other points of view, the Homeschooled are in a position to do so. The Public Schooled aren’t. They will have to depend on what the talking heads on the idiot box tell them.

You have to be a complete idiot to think that parents are ever going to allow government to go back to the days of the failed status quo of public schooling. We have the choice of five schools for our children here, one traditional public school and four charters. The dinosaur is Tony for wanting to go back to the 80s. Not happening.

Even if homeschoolers where all atheists, the GOP would still care due to all of the Leftist indoctrination prevalent in government run schools and also no increase in test scores despite dramatic increases in education spending.

Wow, you really don’t know anyone who was homeschooled, do you? My kids were taught evolutionary theory, along with critical thinking skills. And the “social skills” canard shows how little you know about it. Our choice had nothing to do with being “anti-government”, and I fail to see how we are “inflicting” anything on you by opting to pursue another option. I’m not forcing YOU to homeschool. You are more than welcome to keep your kids in public school. But I would rather give you an option to do it if you chose to.

Mostly agree with you there, but Tony is the very reason for the meme in the first place. Absolutely no thought or self-reflection put into any of his posts. Runs away at the slightest sign of a challenge. Unable to cite the barest supporting source for anything he asserts.

Hey you racist moron — did you even read the article? “”Today’s homeschool advocates aren’t the Christian Right, trying to dismantle public education. Rather, they’re parents who don’t believe that the current school model is best, or enough, for their children,” reports the Pacific Standard.”

Regarding your “no social skills” blather: How the hell does a public school inmate develop social skills locked in a room all day with a bunch of kids exactly the same age and demographic as him/xe/herself? No interaction with kids of other ages or with any adult besides the correctional officer in charge of the classroom? You call *that* building social skills?

My kids regularly interact with other homeschool kids from 3 to 17, and are *far* more comfortable dealing with adults than their institutionalized peers.

“Except so many homeschool kids end up with no social skills believing that Jesus had a pet dinosaur.”

My uber-religious uncle home schooled my cousins and admittedly this is exactly what happened…well not the pet dinosaur, but they were socially awkward and mostly regurgitated his extreme literal-interpretation magical thinking christian beliefs. He and my aunt also aren’t the cream of the crop in terms of family genes (I think they might both be able to do algebra but that’s as far as it goes for them).

But he also did it wrong. Nowadays homeschoolers are often well socialized (as there are known groups for this) and if the parents don’t treat it as “inject Jesus into everything” they can turn out to be well-rounded, learned individuals. More importantly, as a libertarian the choice to do so should be celebrated, because why should I not be able to raise and educate my kids the way I want?!

That being said I also have to roll my eyes at people that throw around the term “govt schools.” It’s as if they think there is this dystopian other realm where they are opening up the kids skulls and pouring democrat propaganda into them. It’s almost 100% strict conservatives who use it as another victimization card that the “govt schools” are a way to indoctrinate kids against them.

Mostly the issue with public schools is if there is too much riff-raff it’s distracting to the smart kids. The socialization is nice, again, as long as there isn’t too much riff-raff causing non stop fighting (one of the schools I was at). My brother and I (as well as our kids now) went 100% to public schools. We blew by all of our friends that were either home schooled or in private school by any measurable test metric. We both took college level calculus and physics before finishing high school and tested out of it freshman year. I’m a physician and he is an engineer.

Neither of us were subject to govt propaganda, and we both detest much of govt spending (especially entitlements and the military). We vote L mostly with a sprinkling of the major parties. We both voted (sigh) for Trump.

Public schools are fine. I look at them like I do roads and bridges. A public good that is something I am OK with my tax dollars going to.

Bullshit. The Public Schools are mind-numbing indoctrination centers. It’s just that nobody who hasn’t developed a POV outside Teh Narrative sees it. Fish; “What is this water you speak of?”

The Public Schools teach that our withdrawal from Vietnam was an unalloyed good. I know, I get reports from young friends. Nobody wants to admit that the North Vietnamese ran reeducation camps every but as horrible as Mao’s. Nobody much wants to talk about the degree to which Mao makes a certain Austrian look like Rebecca of F*cking Sunnybrook Farm. And they CERTAINLY don’t want to talk about how the enthusiastic monster, Pol Pot, oversaw the murder of between one quarter and one third of his fellow countrymen.

If the Public Schools taught something resembling history instead of fairly unsubtle propaganda, people wearing Che t-shirts could expect the kind of harassment that people wearing MAGA hats get now.

I bet they don’t teach a Democrat got us into Vietnam, a Democrat escalated our involvement in Vietnam, then Democrats collectively did everything possible to lose in Vietnam. Probably don’t have time for that.

Maybe things have changed and we will need to reconsider when they get around the ages they are learning about global sociopolitical topics. Kids are still young. At least up until this point they have gotten lessons on basic civics and American history (I think earlier than I ever did). None of my teachers in middle/high school (when we did more world history) ever held back on the evils of communism and the major players in murdering/enslaving/imprisoning their own citizens. I definitely got the gist of “communism/fascism bad” if not “communism/fascism is murder.”

If we were really unhappy with our local public schools we would consider a private/charter if necessary. Nothing against good homeschooling, done right. Honestly between my wife and I (also a physician) we could do a better job teaching the majority of topics they will need to learn. But I won’t be giving up my career (and I won’t ask her to either) to do so when public school was more than adequate for both of us.

The rot has been there for a looooong time. I went to a private schoo with a Conservative reputation, back in the middle 1970’s. Nevertheless, in spite of actually being IN OHIO, when we got to Kent State we spent a whole day and somehow nobody mentioned that the day before the shootings, the ‘protesters’ had set fire to the ROTC building and interfered with firefighters on the scene. It never occured to the teacher that that act made shutting down the ‘protest’ an urgent priority, before some idiot tried some similar stunt where it could set off a gas main, or jump to a dorm. It wasn’t until I read James Michner’s book on the subject, in 1998, that I learned that little titbit.

The rot has been there for a looooong time. I went to a private schoo with a Conservative reputation, back in the middle 1970’s. Nevertheless, in spite of actually being IN OHIO, when we got to Kent State we spent a whole day and somehow nobody mentioned that the day before the shootings, the ‘protesters’ had set fire to the ROTC building and interfered with firefighters on the scene. It never occured to the teacher that that act made shutting down the ‘protest’ an urgent priority, before some idiot tried some similar stunt where it could set off a gas main, or jump to a dorm. It wasn’t until I read James Michner’s book on the subject, in 1998, that I learned that little titbit.

The rot has been there for a looooong time. I went to a private schoo with a Conservative reputation, back in the middle 1970’s. Nevertheless, in spite of actually being IN OHIO, when we got to Kent State we spent a whole day and somehow nobody mentioned that the day before the shootings, the ‘protesters’ had set fire to the ROTC building and interfered with firefighters on the scene. It never occured to the teacher that that act made shutting down the ‘protest’ an urgent priority, before some idiot tried some similar stunt where it could set off a gas main, or jump to a dorm. It wasn’t until I read James Michner’s book on the subject, in 1998, that I learned that little titbit.

All schooling – public/government, private schools, and homeschooling – teach, train, and indoctrinate children. Accept this and get over it. Philosophers of education know this but most of us in the USA don’t want to believe it. Those who homeschool are simply choosing to not allow the elitists, professors of education, teachers’ unions, and pablum curriculum providers to do the indoctrinating. It is pretty simple. By the way, after about 100 years of 87% of children being in public/government schools, why is it not yet nirvana on earth in the USA (e.g., illiteracy rates, incarceration rates, “teen-pregnancy” rates, rates of STDs, voting rates, drug abuse rates, alcohol abuse rates, at least 10% of all public school students – that’s about 5 million today – being sexually maltreated by public/government school personnel by the time they graduate — US Dept Justice, 2017). Why not try parent-led home-based education?

I absolutely support the idea that people should be able to control their kids’ education and pull them out of shitty public schools in order to improve that education.

But, I’m not exactly convinced by performance comparisons between home-school and public-school kids. The act of pulling your kid out of public school and investing the time/effort to do homeschooling clearly indicates a parent that prioritizes their child’s education and is taking active steps to improve it. Those are the kids who are mostly likely to succeed regardless of public/private/home education.

The ones who are most likely to fail are the kids whose parents can’t be bothered to prioritize their education. And I think these are people that can be helped most by something like a charter school. But, I don’t think they’re likely to succeed with home-schooling.

Basically, the people who are currently making home-schooling look good are the people who are most likely to succeed wherever they learn.

But the message cuts the same either way. “Kids whose parents were given the maximum latitude to guide their education do the best.”

A couple families in my neighborhood home school. The wife and I both work, so it won’t happen for us. But those kids are some of the most well adjusted youths I’ve met- and they don’t have to deal with the bullshit schools impose just to manage 30 screaming kids in a classroom. Those parents spend MAYBE 3 hours a day schooling their kids, while my kids maybe get 2 hours of actual instruction and 4 hours of lining up, walking to classes, sitting down, lunch and recess.

Plus, those parents get to go on trips whenever they want, rather than during the few weeks a year when Hotels and tickets are super expensive.

“kids whose parents were given the maximum latitude to guide their education do the best.” That presumes competence/interest/ability to effectively guide their education. I’ve met plenty of parents that don’t possess those traits. Other than that, I don’t disagree at all.

Your neighbors who spend 3 hours a day schooling their kids would definitely seem to fit my “parent that prioritizes their child’s education and is taking active steps to improve it.” I’d bet those kids would also do well in public schools also.

But, i think I’mNotSure’s comment below is a better example of how the system (homeschooling) can deliver a substantially better outcome then public schools.

A google search for “homeschooling benefits for special needs” returns about 16,000,000 results. Have you considered the possibility that some parents homeschool their kids because they (the kids) have disabilities and the parents believe they can do a better job of helping them than the public schools can?

As I mention below, I’m not arguing against homeschool; just pointing out that the positive results of homeschooling could be more due to the people (student/parent) than the system.

But, my response glossed over special needs. In that case, yeah, there’s a good chance that a parent (the type I describe as “a parent that prioritizes their child’s education and is taking active steps to improve it”) would find that a public school fails them and their child despite their involvement.

If a parent firmly believes they can do a better job (and they are able to commit the time and effort), I absolutely support doing it. Again, I don’t oppose homeschool (or other non-public options) at all.

Basically, the people who are currently making home-schooling look good are the people who are most likely to succeed wherever they learn.

This may be true, but this is the opposite of an argument against homeschooling. I home-schooled my two boys until grade 7, then put them into public school, to give them a years’ adjustment before high school. Although some of the classwork was as good as homeschooling, the amount of complete time-wasting is amazing. So many times the teachers give out busywork handouts as they complete reams of state-mandated paperwork. Simple classes like Shop have morphed into weird career planning/ personal inventory classes that teach all the topics at a uselessly low level. History classes taught by coaches become mindless indoctrination. Even English has become a watered down mess, kids expected to read 2 books in an entire year, and then writing formulaic essays according to strict outlines.

Once upon a time, I learned:

The district’s latest budget spends $73.2 million on special education and $7.8 million on gifted and talented programs, according to an email response from budget director [name]

Maybe not clear enough with my initial disclaimer. I’m not trying to argue against homeschooling. I’m just saying that the argument (better results from homeschooled kids vs public school peers proves something about homeschooling vs public schools) isn’t necessarily supported. It could easily be the result of better quality student/parents as opposed to better quality education.

Even if the resulting education results were worse, I still firmly support parents’ rights to get their kids away from public schools.

I’m a little scared by the thought of kids being homeschooled by people with ignorant/ridiculous beliefs like flat-earthers and creationists. But, they may still produce better results than many public schools.

I’m 90% sure that 90% of flat earthers are carrying a running joke. The fact it gets people so riled up is fascinating. The 10% who are truly in the tank are probably not in a custodial position to make decisions on education anyway. The remaining will influence their kids (likely by embarrassing them) despite an assertion by the state over their schooling.

Which is to say that this is probably an even worse argument than ‘hey, guys, this other method seems to be generating better results’

Further, despite the difficulty people seem to have with nuance, the article is saying that governments ought to ask why the other method is generating better results, then implement changes. That they won’t (and indeed want to destroy the other method) seems to be a big relevant indictment against government schooling.

I think self selection bias is legit in the case of home schooled and private schooled… But to that I say “So what?”

Those kids will probably STILL get a leg up over being in shitty government schools. So the kids will probably still be better off, and I doubt the lack of a few smart kids in the public schools will hurt the dummies there much.

I am still waiting for someone to provide statistics on how a 1:2 student ratio is not better than a 1:30. And proof that ‘socializing’ with 30 – 40 kids/bullies of the same age is better than being around groups of mixed ages, including multiple adults of varying ideologies.

Given that home schooling is much more varied than public education camps, I know there are different situations, but as we pay the price in retirement of one income while homeschooling two children, it is still worth the cost. We lived in rental housing, drove older cars, and ate at chain restaurants, but the kids are just fine.

Quote from the Pacific Standard: “Today’s homeschool advocates aren’t the Christian Right, trying to dismantle public education. Rather, they’re parents who don’t believe that the current school model is best, or enough, for their children”

The Christian Right homeschoolers also “don’t believe that the current school model” is working for their kids. How are these parents more sinister than the secular homeschooling parents?

And any homeschooling family is doing its bit to “dismantle public education,” whether the motivation is religious or secular.

Furthermore, if the “Religious Right” parents sent their kids to public schools, they’d just make a lot of trouble with claims of secular humanism, etc. From the standpoint of the public schools, it’s less hassle to have the fundies out of public school, other than the fact that they no longer attract attendance-based funds.

Seriously, when the fundies send their kids to government schools and try to get involved in the system, it’s creeping theocracy. If they pull their kids out of government schools, it’s trying to dismantle the public-school system.

And all the while they’re rebelling against feeling as though they’re being forced to accept a top-down interpretation.

I listened to a debate that involved a young earth creationist. It was fascinating in that he held his own waaaay better than I anticipated. While ultimately unpersuasive, his arguments were at least initially compelling and well presented. That someone is doing good-faith research in genuine pursuit of truth should be celebrated (well, maybe a step or two below that) even if their work does not ultimately reach that truth. That these people are fairly well adjusted in the face of constant ridicule is all the more a show of strength.

I’m don’t foresee signing on to that viewpoint, but I do believe in a competition of ideas.

I’ve actually watched some of those young earth people before on YouTube… They actually bring up some very interesting points on some scientific things people take for granted. Our dating techniques are WAY sketchier than people like to think for instance. Likewise there are a LOT of issues with evolution that we haven’t quite figured out the nuts and bolts details on yet.

I believe in evolution, and that the earth is billions of years old of course… But I just found it interesting that they were finding little things that need to be worked out in a lot of theories, since they were grasping at straws to justify their beliefs. Interesting stuff at least!

You know that evangelicals aren’t any more fond of Catholics then they are of homosexuals, right Eddy? I swear, some ideological conservatives (whom I class differently then dispositional conservatives) are almost as dense as the pseudo-progressives cozying-up to Islamists.

Seriously, when the fundies send their kids to government schools and try to get involved in the system, it’s creeping theocracy. If they pull their kids out of government schools, it’s trying to dismantle the public-school system.

True Anecdote: I was a member of a county foundation Scholarship Committee. Grants were available to “any county resident graduating from high school”. Lad who was the only one in his class in a small Baptist school submitted his application, which was immediately tossed on the rejection pile. Lady committee member (college professor) was offended when I said the kid should be an automatic grantee inasmuch as his application included 4.0 avg and a solid 28 ACT score (one of the few ever seen). She scoffed with “you can’t trust grade scores from these unaccredited so-called schools. I observed the kid had taken the same fucking ACT exam, given by the same fucking school administration as nearly all the other applicants. She said she thought it a waste to issue a grant for “dubious” college study. (He’d been accepted at a Bible College in Indiana to study theology). I replied, “Whatever you say professor, but if he doesn’t get the largest grant we offer I’m going to schedule a press conference with me, the kid, his pastor and all the news media I can get to attend. This conversation will be the focal point”. Kid got the scholarship, his beaming picture in the paper, his school received public accolades and I got replaced from any further committee work on any committee. Was always dubious of foundations, have advised against them ever since.

“…I replied, “Whatever you say professor, but if he doesn’t get the largest grant we offer I’m going to schedule a press conference with me, the kid, his pastor and all the news media I can get to attend. This conversation will be the focal point”.”

Props to you and I hope the prof was the asshole reverend of our acquaintance.

I’ve since regretted not doing that very thing, but I felt I was a hostage to my position in the community. When you’re a member of the Board of Directors of a publicly traded company you often must choose between your social positions, or, forgo that substantial monthly stipend and the social outing invites, both considerable. I humbly admit to shades of hypocrisy, though never about my faith or political positions. Like I said, I’d already reassessed my feelings toward foundations so my quiet dismissal was a relief, I had too many fucking meetings to attend anyway.

That’s the problem with charter and private schools. The students are not properly indoctrinated into the wise and humane ways of socialist slavery. Too often these students are allowed to think for themselves, due research independent of proper socialist guidance and fail to engage in protests in the de jour issues which result in happy, more tolerant and accepting people. This cannot continue if we are to achieve the proletariat paradise we all so covet. We must continue with the government monopoly schools that produce near functional illiterates who are much more easy to indoctrinate and manipulate. One only has to look to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and all the pearls of wisdom that comes from her mouth as a bright and shining example of how wonderful public education has done.

That’s the problem with charter and private schools. The students are not properly indoctrinated into the wise and humane ways of socialist slavery. Too often these students are allowed to think for themselves, due research independent of proper socialist guidance and fail to engage in protests in the de jour issues which result in happy, more tolerant and accepting people. This cannot continue if we are to achieve the proletariat paradise we all so covet. We must continue with the government monopoly schools that produce near functional illiterates who are much more easy to indoctrinate and manipulate. One only has to look to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and all the pearls of wisdom that comes from her mouth as a bright and shining example of how wonderful public education has done.

“Students with greater exposure to homeschooling tend to be more politically tolerant”

This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone with more understanding of the issue than, say, a stapler or a Tony. Even the craziest parent isn’t as adept at producing the brainwashed, embittered little drones the public schools churn out year after year. Because there is only so much in a day one person can and will teach, then the kid has the rest of the time to… You know, be a kid. But if you have a bunch of different brainwashing experts working in shifts, you get 7+hours of uninterrupted political molding… It’s the best propagandizing that money can buy

John Taylor Gatto wrote in an essay once that the primary function of a government school is to make children into adults that act like children (and not in a good way). I believe it was in ‘Against School’. Worth a read.

Public School has always been about indoctrination. Always. Go back and read about the early Charity Schools in England. The thing is, the schools used to have an unspoken bargain with the parents; ‘We will indoctrinate your children into our preferred Social mold, but in exchange we will teach them to read , write, and do useful Math, even though it might alter enable them to throw off their conditioning.’

The Schools have broken that agreement. I have ideas about why, but they don’t matter. The agreement is broken, and so parents no longer back up the schools on matters of discipline. Which in turn makes it impossible to educate the little yard apes, even if the schools were so inclined.

It’s broken, and so far as I can see the only way to fix it is to alter the system in such a way that the schools have some leverage with the parents. School vouchers would do that, because a voucher school could make it explicit that they reserve the right to expel the child, a right the public schools can’t really have.

I agree. Almost all the home schooled kids I have ever known were waaay more mature than others their same age. I dated a girl who was home schooled for a few years, and her younger siblings acted like people twice their age in a lot of ways. Which isn’t a bad thing.

Education in the 3 R’s takes about 3hrs/day 4 days/wk. Very often that is the only time a homeschooler will be at home. Tomorrow my girls will be meeting with their co-op friends. The oldest will begin a scholar class on WWII, while the youngest works on a newsletter her friends are putting together. In the afternoon they will be making plans for a Shakespeare play they will perform in May. Thursday afternoon another set of friends will meet to attend the exhibit at our local museum. Friday we will probably skip the hike with our local Facebook group as I hate hiking in the rain. In two weeks the community choir starts up again after Christmas break, my son and one daughter are in that choir as well as the subsidiary dance troupe. Our local YMCA, archery range, parkour gym, science museum, and performing arts center have all realized homeschoolers are a market and have begun offering homeschool classes. I haven’t quite figured out the logistics of attending the Disneyland homeschool camp, where they offer physics, marketing, and story-boarding classes and finances prevent me from joining the not-back-to-school cruise next fall, but I figure my kids will live.

I do know there are parents who don’t go places, either due to health, finances, or reclusiveness. Perhaps their kids will feel deprived of social activity. Most homeschooling parents love the freedom it offers to show their kids the wide world and let them gain experiences.

Baby-boomers grew up before school choice and, as a result, many of us spent our twenties in therapy, often talking (gaslighting) about our parents, but actually unlearning the toxic “socialization” we learned in public schools–when nobody wanted to be there and most kids took out their feelings about being there on anyone smaller.

There are a lot of businesses that cater to homeschools. That offer classes, labs, even entire grade level class sets. Parents can drop kids off just like at a “normal” school. This is along with co-ops and everything else. Also, just because a kid is homeschooled doesn’t mean they don’t go out into the neighborhood and interact with the other kids, play sports, etc.

There seems to be this idea that if a kid is homeschooled they never leave the house.

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I had a awesome childhood growing up on a rural farm. I had many friends, and enjoyed the freedom to pursue my interests unencumbered by an indoctrination bureaucracy with it’s centrally planned curriculum.

We, my siblings and I, never believed Jesus had a pet dinosaur or any such nonsense, and we’ve all led happy successful lives, and are all married with beautiful children.

While at the time, I didn’t fully appreciate the arduous effort my parents had invested in us, I do now, as I currently homeschool my own children. I hear many myths about the homeschool stereptype, often promulgated by worshipers of the state.

However, I actually know many families that homeschool. I’ve found these kids are typically the smartest, most well adjusted, free thinking, and socially mature children I’ve had the pleasure to know. They consistently test at levels far above their publicly educated contemporaries.

I resent paying excessive taxes for schools I would loath to see my children attend, but I understand that my choice is not for everyone. I absolutely love raising my own, my way. And I would vigorously defend my right to do so.

I’ve found no other endeavor, that so completely encompasses libertarianism as I see it.

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Are there any study and socialization groups for atheist and free-thinking homeschoolers? What if they don’t want their kids only “friends” to see them as nothing more then potential converts? Is there any alternative for them?

You would need to look it up for your area… I don’t know that there are any big national groups that are explicitly secular that then sub organize these things locally. If you live in saaay Boston I’d look up “Boston Home School groups” or something to that effect and look through the various results.

“Homeschooling Produces Better-Educated, More-Tolerant Kids. Politicians Hate That Government officials should use the success of the competition as an educational moment.”

Ok, little Dolly Daydream, explain this to me; why should any rational person, having observed the political landscape, expect this? Better Educated , More Tolerant kids are the exact opposite of what the Democrat Party wants, and it is the Democrat Party, by and large, that hates Homeschooling and School Choice poisonously.

Oh, they despise most religions, though they have infiltrated a lot of sects. But what they truly FEAR is a generation of autodidacts; kinds whose reaction to Teh Narrative is to check the facts and the math. Because if THAT habit catches on, the status quo is gonna get REAL seasick.

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As a dentist with a wife who is a physical therapist and multiple family members who are public school teachers and college professors our family was not one to disparage any of the choices out there. We feel choice is an important part of life we learn from our good and bad choices. I feel as though those that believe that the government should take away the choices of those who they feel don’t have the right ideas are just going to be the ones that would be next in line for the gulag. Our families come from Chinese and Czechoslovakian descent so we understand the evils of communism. For those that are open-minded here are are anecdotal thoughts on this subject. We chose to homeschool on a year-to-year reevaluation of our choices and ended up homeschooling through High School. To us this was the better and best choice for our family. We understand that this may not be the best or better choice for All Families. But our decision was based on the options we had available and also some results that we saw in homeschool families around us. The maturity, the intellectual honesty, the open-mindedness, the happiness love and joy of the kids and families overall, and the long-term results were all part of our decisions.

We have homeschooling friends who sent their kids to Harvard and Princeton, another who was a Fulbright scholar and whose kids now are adults and doing very very well. We live in a top 10 School District in our state that has worked beautifully with us over the years for specials, testing and sports. Our girls have played Varsity Sports at our local high school and each so far has been a team captain their senior years. Our daughters have scored between 28 and 32 on the ACT. One has been de facto working for the state department as an ambassador in training. For those who hate homeschooling for whatever reason I can’t stop you from being a hater nor from drinking the Kool-Aid. But it is what I expect to see from those who can’t see that they are being brainwashed to look at things from only one point of view, the point of you you’re being sold by the propaganda wing of whatever side you thank you stand on and I can’t help feeling sorry for you. I only hope you’re not a part of wanting to take away our choices because you feel the government knows better and want to wipe out ideas that don’t agree with yours.

All any parent needs to do is an internet search of: Edina, Minnesota Inside a Public School Social Justice Factory.

This is going on throughout the country. NO WAY am I sending my kids to this garbage. Marxism led to the killing of millions of people in the mid to late 20th century by the hands of Stalin, Hitler, Mao and others.

The left doesn’t ever talk about individual responsibility. All they scream about are “rights, rights, rights” It’s such garbage.

It is what you would expect from the play book of the history of liberalism. Forget about what you earn and I responsible for what is most important in their world is the so-called rights that only a mob government can give you, therefore you got to vote the mob government in to get what you don’t actually Deserve, You Won’t Do for yourself, your family, your community, or your country. But join the Socialist National Party and will give you everything and send those you hate to the gulag.

Seems to me that homeschooling is more efficient than either public or private school. The kid can have the pace tailored for his strengths and weaknesses. If the kid is a whiz at math, but struggles in reading, the parent can spend more time on their reading. At school, the entire class (or break out groups) have to move at a minimum pace and the teacher can’t give that much individual attention, when there are another 18 kids in the class.

Kid can be finished with “formal” training by noon, and have the whole afternoon to do activity based learning. Can take a second or third language, practice a musical instrument, volunteer, etc. The possibilities are nameless. Plus, in the old days, a parent may have been concerned that they didn’t have the teaching ability for their kid. Now you can purchase a curriculum on the Internet taught by first class teachers for various topics with the parent working on areas of weakness.

Just think of a whole generation of kids growing up being able to read and write, and think critically. Must just terrify and state.

There are at least two groups offering Standard Public Education services to “homeschoolers” – K12.com and Connections Academy. These are really nothing more than online Public Schools. They send you the books and such (for free), kid sits in front of a computer and does their lessons.

So, those that want to keep their kids at home but are afraid of the “Christian” influence can do this – yes there are many other better ways, but this is easy.

We didn’t like it because at the grade level our son was way above it and got really board.

Can’t you just run through the years quickly though, and essentially graduate them early?

I was in Gifted And Talented Education in elementary school for part of it. Basically I was a pain in the ass, they thought I had ADD, gave me a battery of tests and realized I was just really gifted and bored. GATE ran a few grades ahead of what was normally taught in the same grade.

The funny thing is, if I was allowed to go at my own pace, say with homeschooling, with just hitting the “normal” benchmarks for what is expected at a given grade, I probably could have graduated HS by the time I was 13-14. I went back to regular public school because I didn’t like being in the GATE program for various reasons, and basically got myself kicked out (long story!)… But I was doing algebra for the first time in 5th grade.

I seem to recall knowing a few home schoolers who were considered to be above the grade they should have been in by their mere age, so I always assumed you could basically test yourself out to higher grades if your kids were smart enough to do it. One kid I knew started going to HS and was considered 2 grades above his age based grade. Funny thing, his parents both were teachers in public schools! Could vary by state though.

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Excellent logic and evidence-based article. It is no wonder that parent-led home-based education is growing amongst a diversity of people ? dark- and light-skinned, rich and poor, urban and rural, high- and low-income, Jew or pagan or Christian ? all around the world. As you wrote, on average, the home educated perform better academically, socially, and into adulthood than those who attend public/government schools. Further, their minds are free of the propaganda of state/government/public schools — whether conventional public school, public tax-funded charter schools, or virtual online tax-funded schooling.

You can be sure, however, that statists and others ? such as professors of education, public/government school teachers, teachers’ unions ? who like to control children, and citizens’ lives in general, will come up with many ill-founded reasons for why the State/government needs to “tempt” homeschoolers into tax-funded and state-controlled homeschooling of private home-based education. See peer-reviewed homeschool research summarized in Journal of School Choice, article by Brian Ray, the 5th item at http://www.nheri.org/homeschooling-re…..holarship/

Some of the comments here are absurd but I will try to raise the level – bear with me. All schooling – public/government, private schools, and homeschooling – teach, train, and indoctrinate children. All Americans (and Germans, Canadians, Chinese, etc.) need to understand this and accept it. Philosophers of education know this but most of us in the USA don’t want to believe it. Those who homeschool are simply choosing to not allow those who control things, professors of education, teachers’ unions, and pablum curriculum corporations to do the indoctrinating. It is pretty simple. By the way, after about 100 years of 87% of children being in public/government schools, why is it not yet nirvana on earth in the USA? Check out our illiteracy rates, incarceration rates, “teen-pregnancy” rates, rates of STDs, voting rates, drug abuse rates, alcohol abuse rates, at least 10% of all public school students – that’s about 5 million as we sit here today! – being sexually maltreated by public/government school personnel by the time they graduate (US Dept Justice, 2017). Why not try parent-led home-based education?

Just that one has a negative connotation really. But it’s probably still better to choose what you done learn your kids, versus the kind of scum bags that run this country nowadays. The funny thing is back in the day the US school system mostly gave kids GOOD indoctrination. Watch old cold war propaganda that was shown in schools, it’s mostly completely right. It taught good morals, the value of the individual, hard work, etc.

Kids don’t know anything, so much be taught everything… What you teach them is the important part.

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If children study at home, it has high demands on their parents. If parents do not lead well, it will also have a negative impact on the child’s growth. Parents need to create more learning conditions for their children, such as exercising their child’s hands-on ability and design ability. Design can enhance a child’s creativity, let the children draw, cut paper, etc. https://www.pinclipart.com/ There are a lot of clip art and cartoon painting materials here, I think it is very helpful.

Just a random data point/rant;My wife and I homeschool our kid and any future kids (seculalry). I don’t want my kid bullied or beat up especially if there are groups of kids who are nearly off limits from punishment due to demographic/politically correct pressure (as was the case when I was a kid in public school). I don’t want my kid brought up on sexual harassment charges if he merely looks at a girl or happens to kiss one. I dont need the public school system to my kid’s tax payer funded babysitter. Oh, and I dont like the heavily left influenced culture of public school teachers, admin, curriculum. I am pleased to see the revolt, we are fortunate to do so here in the US.

Of course the government school types care! They don’t care if kids get a good and safe education, but they DO care whether they get federal funding, and private and home schools take this away from them. BOTH of my girls went to a private (church connected) school, and they are MILES ahead of those kids who went to government schools. i am not saying any of this out of turn, as I have a degree in education, and have taught at the high school level. I DETEST the teachers unions, as they fight for ever rising pay scales for teachers, and to HELL with the kids. GO private and parochial schools!

In order to home school you have to either live in a low-cost-of-living area, or have a parent who makes enough money to support a desired lifestyle on one salary. I supposed if parents had their own business with flexible hours they could also manage it.

If you live in a middle/upper-middle class neighborhood public schools can be decent. The low-cost-of-living places (usually with poor public schools) aren’t necessarily places where either parent can get a job.

You also have to have a certain personality to want to spend quite that much time with your kids day in and day out.

You can homeschool a child on $600 (about the national average) or less. If you already have the Internet in your home and access to government/public libraries or books in your home, money is not the issue. Are parents willing to live on two old used cars or one? Fewer vacations? Fewer fluffy coffee drinks? Let’s get honest about the “money thing.” Co-ops are everywhere, both in low-, middle-, and upper-class ‘hoods. You say “public schools can be decent.” Well, “decent” is not good enough for any child, and indoctrination by those who run government/public schools (i.e., professors who are largely leftists, socialists, neo-Marxists, and critical theorists; teachers who largely pay into and follow the “resolutions” of the NEA; curriculum vendors who pander to the professors and teachers I just mentioned) is not good for children. This is the land of the free and home of the brave — agents of the State should not be in charge of indoctrinating any children.

The truth is we’re wasting tons of money on education and only getting the same results we used to get… American test scores HAVE NOT gone down relative to international scores when you account for the demographic shift in the USA. Whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, etc all get basically the exact same scores we did in the 70s when we were near the top globally, there are just fewer whites which drags down our averages as a nation. So education isn’t MUCH worse than back then.

I’ve never considered basic schooling as being for turning out a truly “educated” person. It’s just building the foundation, and I don’t think even most public schools fail in that. I went to public schools and learned how to read, write, and do math. That is really all basic education is for IMO. You need to continue to learn about history, politics, economics, etc on your own throughout your life. Normal to smart kids do fine and learn what they need to, and dumb kids fail like they will in any situation.

Now they obviously COULD do better on things, which would be nice… But if it weren’t for turning kids into Marxists PSs wouldn’t be THAT horrible. Just overly expensive and mediocre. But as is I don’t know if I could send my kids to one when I have them as they are now.

There’s no “commie indoctrination” stuff here, if you carefully read my comments. All schooling – public schooling, private schooling, and homeschooling – teaches, trains, and indoctrinates children. It is historical fact that for at least 30 years, K-12 government/public schooling has been dominated by professors of education, teachers’ unions, administrative folks, and curriculum creators who are, as I wrote, “largely leftists, socialists, neo-Marxists, and critical theorists …” Don’t believe this? Read the NEA’s annual resolutions (publicly available online), study the worldview/policies of the AERA (American Educational Research Association; I know these folks, personally), and the government/public school textbooks, videos, and more. If you like this worldview and you like your children being indoctrinated into it by the forced re-distribution of wealth, then by all means use government schools. We just have to be honest about what is going on. I happen to know there are tens of thousands of families who are unaware of this and would rather that this kind of values, worldview, religion, and philosophy not go into their children’s hearts and minds.

Bobo, that’s my point. They DO try to brainwash kids into being commies. If it was not for that fact, the schools would be acceptable IMO. They’d still be mediocre and cost 3x what they should, but so it goes with government.

The leftist BS they teach in schools is the main reason I wouldn’t want to send my kids to public schools.

vek, I’m happy you mentioned demographics as they are important in any discussion of public education. I live in an area with numerous elite? private schools, however, the achievement of our public schools is the equal to greater of those. This I attribute to immense desire of immigrant parents to establish domicile in areas where the schools are doing an excellent job. And their children further raise the quality of these schools and it becomes a feed-back situation.

Yeah, some nice areas that have a lot of educated immigrant parents do very well. I live in Seattle, and some of the public schools on the east side (Which is Bellevue, Redmond, etc suburbs of Seattle) are filled to the brim with Asian/Indian immigrants. They do quite well. Same as an upper middle class white area would.

Alternatively areas filled with low skill, poor immigrants tend to do vastly worse than your typical American school. The particulars matter. This is of course why I am not in favor of low skilled immigration. Indian IT guys kids don’t drop out of high school to sell drugs… But other immigrant groups kids do.

Politicians hate that they cannot indoctrinate the children in the ways of socialism, Marxism and Fascism. 80% of what is taught in schools is utterly useless when real life and living eventually come a calling. So that ensures that the young adults will have to depend on government to provide the rich life they have been taught that they are entitled to. It keeps the corrupt politicians, all 98% of them, in power and in control of its slaves.

I have worked in public education for 20 years in both Public schools and charters. I home school my kids, though under an umbrella of a charter. One of my sons has dyslexia, and we are able to help him along. And hopefully he will be ready to roll by the time he is ready for high school. The other is very precocious and is able to study ahead of his curriculum. They also take classes at local private schools that cater to parents that homeschool. Their mathematical and science skills are way above grade level. I am happy that I have this educational freedom. You can provide a quality education to your child, if you have the time. I don’t begrudge the very religious people that choose this route, not do I ridicule them as some of you do. They trail blazed the way for families like mine that are secular, but who also want educational freedom. Public schools are imperfect, but not because that’s what schools want. Most public school teachers are hardworking individuals who dearly care about educating and helping students, but the paradigm of the system lends itself to mediocrity. I understand that working families do not have the choice to supervise their kids, and must use the public school system, like it or not. But the ideas that are coming out of this will help all kids someday.